


Expression

by Faiz, GreenMuffinRanger (FuzzyPurplePenguins)



Category: Power Rangers Dino Charge
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, But Happy Ending Though, F/M, Just All of the Angst, Lore - Freeform, M/M, Minor OMC - Freeform, Pining, This is Not Your Typical Love Story Except it Kind of Is
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-25
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-06 03:27:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4206198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faiz/pseuds/Faiz, https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuzzyPurplePenguins/pseuds/GreenMuffinRanger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chase Randall is cursed.</p><p>Riley Griffin will make it all better.</p><p> </p><p>...eventually.</p><p>(This fic is at least 10x times more serious then the summary)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I can now officially say I've crossed someone off my Collab Wishlist. Thanks Riniel (luckyuro on tumblr), for agreeing to work with me and helping me with this idea I came up with!
> 
> She's so much fun to work with, it doesn't even feel like work and the writing comes easily.
> 
> We've been swapping back and forth who's writing what, although she writes Chase's POV and I'm writing Riley's. This prologue was all her and she did a fantastic job (especially with the curse & the lore!). :)
> 
> I can't say much more without giving away the entirety of the plot besides prepare your hearts for feels. 
> 
> We hope you enjoy!

Chase could feel himself starting to nod off slightly as he continued to stare at the small brightly lit phone screen while he blasted music loudly in his ears. He was getting dangerously close to letting his phone slip out of his grasp as his head dipped incredibly close to his desk and nearly hitting it. But before he could, he was jerked backwards by the sound of a slamming door and an arm wrapping itself around his neck and pulling him backwards, pulling his headphones out in the process as his chair tipped back.

“Oi, the fuck?” Chase spat out, looking up with narrowed eyes to a familiar mop of messy black hair and crooked smile. “Hemi I am going to _kill you._ ”

“Hey mate, you weren’t answering my texts so I thought I’d take the initiative and come to your house.” Hemi shrugged, letting go of Chase and sitting down on his unmade bed. 

“How did you get in here anyways?” Chase asked, trying to remember if his mum was home or not.

“I let myself in bro, your mum gave me a key.”

“Why the hell would my mum give you a key to our flat?” Chase asked, already gathering up his things in preparation to leave, because he knew Hemi was there for one reason, that being to drag him somewhere.

“She likes me, your mum. Probably more than she likes you come to think of it.”

“Thanks.” Chase responded sarcastically. “Now where are we going? I know for a fact that you’re here for a reason. And I don’t see food in your hands so obviously it’s not to mooch off of us for once.”

“Jethro’s throwin’ a get together and I figured you’d want an excuse to get pissed in the middle of the week.”

Chase stood up and stretched, grabbing a hoodie and throwing it on. “Sure, whatever. As if we’d need an excuse to get pissed.”

Hemi grinned widely at him and both boys were quick to be out the door and away from Chase’s flat. As they walked down the street, Hemi began to pull money out of his pocket and beckoning Chase to follow suit as they approached the liquor store.

“Like hell is Jethro buyin’ piss for everyone.” Hemi remarked as they pooled together their money.

“Yeah well, he’d better not complain about cheap piss when we get there.” Chase muttered, smiling slightly as he finally began to relax when they entered the liquor store. 

“Oh yeah…I forgot to mention” Hemi started as they left the store with beer in hand, trying to sound nonchalant but also sounding very cautious. “Whitney is gonna be there too…” Hemi finished, avoiding eye contact with Chase.

Hemi nearly yelped when Chase came to a sudden stop and shoved the case of beer into Hemi’s grasp. “The fuck mate? You know I don’t like Whitney. She gives off this weird vibe.”

“Oh come on bro, you only ever see her at parties anyways! Not like you have to root her either, you can have your pick of anyone else there.” Hemi stepped back slightly.

That’s what Hemi claimed anyways. But nearly every single party they ever decide to crash always seemed to have Whitney there, and she always attached herself to Chase without him wanting her there. She had even insisted on referring to him as her boyfriend, no matter how many times Chase has told her now. He felt bad for Hemi, who had a ridiculous crush on her even though anyone with a working set of eyes could tell she wasn’t at all interested in him. Yet Hemi still tried to impress her, and Chase wanted to smack him upside the head.

Hemi was still waiting hopefully for Chase, and fuck, he didn’t leave his mates alone. Even if that mate is an idiot, and even if a freaky chick is gonna be there. “Fine. I’ll go.”

Hemi let out an excited holler, and they sped up their pace.

xxxxxxxxxx

The party was already in full swing at Jethro’s place, people dancing around drunkenly and wildly and the music pumped loudly enough for them to feel the bass hammering in their chests. Hemi only stopped long enough to pull out a bottle from their case of beer to shove into Chase’s grasp before disappearing off in the crowd, no doubt to find Whitney. Chase just sighed and opened his bottle to take a swig, staring around at the familiar and unfamiliar faces around him. He was trying to find someone he knew and actually liked well enough to hang out with. But just his luck, as soon as he turned he was met with the one person he did not want to find.

“Oh Chase I’m so glad you’re here!” She practically cooed, sweeping a lock of curly black hair behind her ear. “I thought you would be, I saw your loser friend in the crowd and he’s never anywhere without you.” She made a face at the mention of Hemi.

“Yeah...Hi Whitney.” Chase mumbled, wanting to tell her off for insulting his friend. He took a few steps away from her, but she already grabbed his arm and dragged him through the thick crowd towards the inside of Jethro’s house.

He downed his beer in that time, hoping that he’d pass by a table with more piss on it. Really, one thing he now had to commend Whitney on was her iron grip on his arm. He could barely move it as he reached over to grab someone’s unattended beer without even caring whose it was before chugging that one down as well, making a face at the bitter taste of whatever the hell that person had been drinking.

Whitney was dragging him to her crowd. He didn’t know any of them too well outside of awkward introductions he’d have before. The only two names that he even remembered were George and Leon, two blokes who seemed to act like Whitney’s body guards at all times. He only ever saw them at parties anyways, just like Whitney. When he sat down with them his eyes were drawn directly towards the bottle of vodka sitting on the coffee table they had moved towards them. He quickly poured a shot as Whitney giggled about something next to him. The others just watched him carefully as he poured another shot, and another. He could already feel himself getting buzzed as he knocked back a fourth shot. When he sat back, Whitney nearly threw herself over him.

He tried to gently nudge her away from him, ignoring the dark looks he was getting from George and Leon in particular. He had always figured that Whitney and her boys were in a Maori gang or something. They tended to give off that vibe like Whitney was the daughter of a gang leader or something.

“Oh Chase, there you are! And Whitney too!” 

Oh god, his savior. Chase looked up to see Hemi standing there with his dopey grin, messy black hair, and bright green windbreaker. He glanced to the side to see Whitney frowning as Hemi sat down next to her, trying to casually chat with her but succeeding in sounding very awkward. Chase took advantage of Whitney’s loosened grip to get another shot. He could totally deal with being around her. He was totally in control.

He said that, but ended up focusing on getting more drunk as he skipped the glass and went straight to take a swig from the vodka bottle. He felt smaller hands on his own as Whitney took the bottle away from his lips, much to his dismay. 

“Enough of that love,” Chase made a face at the endearment, “I was going to ask you to help me with something.” She smiled almost kindly at him.

“Help?” Chase asked, feeling weary already. 

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “You see I’m missing something rather important to me. Some bastards stole it from me, but I can’t get it back on my own…”

Chase wanted to ask why she couldn’t just get her goons Leon and George to do it for her, but he kept his mouth shut.

“It’s a necklace you see,” She continued, “And I loved it a lot, but my bastard ex kept it when he broke up with me. And you’re my boyfriend and so strong and handsome…” Chase cringed at the feeling of kisses being pressed to his neck.

“First of all, I’m not your boyfriend. Second of all, you want me to steal something from your ex?” Chase asked. “Why the hell would you think I’d do that?”

He had to admit, he and Hemi may or may not have nicked a few things from the dairy on their street corner on occasion, but those were things like bags of crisps and lollys. Not a necklace. He let out a small rush of air as Whitney’s grip tightened on him and she smiled.

“Come on Chase, for me?” As if that would convince him.

“We can do it!” A voice from Whitney’s other side announced excitedly.

“Hemi no.” Chase sat up and shook his head.

“Mate come on,” Hemi pleaded, “It’s just a necklace bro. We can do it! We’ve seen shows!”

“Hemi watching TV shows that have stealing in them and actually stealing a necklace are two very different things!”

“But we can do it, I know we can!”

Chase groaned and looked away from Hemi. He looked on the table where empty shot glasses were littered around it, minus one. In his annoyed haze, he reached over and grabbed it without thinking. He drank it in one gulp, hissing at the slightly stronger burn it seemed to have. Hemi was already standing with Whitney, and his Maori friend reached over and shook Chase.”

“Come on, let’s just help her….”

“Mate I--” Chase stood up and felt his vision swim, and he nearly stumbled back onto the couch.

Arms grabbed him and started dragging him away before he could even form a proper response. He was only semi aware of what was going on as he went down stairs and could hear thunder starting to rumble overhead. He was trying to remember when it got so dark too, as his head was still swimming and unfamiliar arms kept him steady while they walked down the streets. He couldn’t tell when his mind started to clear somewhat, but he was starting to register where they were as he looked wildly around his surroundings. It was dark, but he could tell exactly where they were.

“Why the fuck are we here? Isn’t this where the fucking Cobras or whatever they’re called work from?” He started backing away but the hands that were still around him stopped him from leaving. It was one of Whitney’s lackeys keeping him steady. George, or Leon maybe.

Hemi looked uncertain as the sky darkened even more with threats of rain. “Whitney, you were dating a King Cobra bloke?”  
She shrugged as if it weren’t a very important piece of information. “Yes, but when we broke up he nearly killed me! And he ended up keeping my necklace even though he knew how important it was to me. I need it back, and you and Chase will help right? It’s not like you’re doing it alone. George, Leon, and the others are going to help you!” 

“Fine, fine…” Chase pushed Leon away from him as he stood himself up slightly more steadily. “We can do this, and get the fuck out of here. Come on, mate.” He gestured to Hemi, who nodded quickly.

xxxxxxxxxx

This was incredibly different from stealing a bag of crisps from the dairy. Every breath he took felt like it was too loud, as Leon and George motioned out orders from them to follow as they snuck around the property. His heart was beating a mile a minute in his chest as Leon motioned to him to enter one of the buildings. An abandoned office it looked like, and Hemi and George were close behind him as Leon kept watch outside. They looked around carefully before locating a safe hiding in the corner of the room under some boxes. 

George was luckily the one who was doing the actual safe cracking, while Hemi and Chase kept watch. Chase really had no clue why he had to be there with Hemi. It seemed like Whitney’s blokes knew damn well what they were doing. His breath caught in his throat as he heard the small click and George opened the safe, pulling out a pale gold shimmering necklace with some weird pendant hanging off of it. Seeing it put a lump in Chase’s throat and when George tried to give him the necklace, he panicked. They were fucking stealing from the King Cobras and he was drunk, maybe even a bit drugged and why the motherfucking shit were they doing this?

He didn’t even like Whitney. He was only doing this to make sure Hemi didn’t get himself killed! Hemi and his stupid fucking brightass green windbreaker that anyone could spot from a mile away if they actually saw him.

George tried to offer him the necklace again and Chase shook his head rapidly, backing away from the man and stumbling backwards and his head going fuzzy from his head shaking. Maybe it was the combination of alcohol and whatever they drugged him with, but also possibly from the sheer terror he was now feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. He fell backwards with a crash, and almost immediately there were the sounds of doors slamming open and lights flickering on.

He felt his mind reeling from pain as he scrambled trying to get to his feet, hearing Hemi yelling at him to get out of there as his friend’s familiar grasp helped him to his feet and they ran out. Whitney was standing there with Leon and the others and an almost crazed look on her face as she grabbed Chase by his collar and shook him.

“Where’s my necklace, do you have it??” 

Chase wanted to tell her that George still had it, but he could only let out a strangled gasp of air as he tried to form words without vomiting and his eyes still wide open and dilated from shock. There was more screaming behind him and Whitney screamed. Chase turned to see at least 20 men gathering around them with clearly pissed off looks on their faces. Someone had grabbed Hemi by the neck and lifted him up in the air, and Chase shoved Whitney away from him as he ran forward towards the Cobra member and punching him square in the jaw. Pain bloomed in his fist where he hit him, but the man let go of Hemi in time for Chase to grab him and try to pull him away.

“Chase, what the fuck are you doing?” Whitney had grabbed him and tried to pull him away from his friend. “You didn’t answer me, where’s my necklace? Didn’t you get it? Why aren’t you helping me? Why are you helping your loser friend instead?”

Chase shoved her away again.“I’m trying to help my best mate _because he’s my fucking best mate._ I don’t have your stupid necklace and stop acting like I’m your fucking boyfriend who needs to cater to your every whim! I don’t want to date you in the fucking slightest Whitney!”

She screamed again, perfectly timed with a crash of thunder overhead as it began to pour rain over them.

It was an absolute shit storm as the sounds of fighting went on behind him with George, Leon, and the other blokes Chase hadn’t even bothered to learn the names of that were Whitney’s lackeys. She looked insane, with her hair whipping wildly around in the wind and her eyes flashing a horrible shade of red as lightning streaked the skies.

“Chase Randall, you have fucking crossed me and I do not appreciate being crossed.” Her voice boomed, like the sound of thunder as the wind blew even more wildly around them.

“W-Whitney--” He tried to say, but she cut him off with a swift, strong kick to his stomach and knocking him to the ground.

“My name. is not. Whitney.” She whispered, leaning close to Chase. “My name is Whaitiri.”

And even though on a good day Chase would have laughed in anyone’s face if they claimed to be a Maori deity, the look in her red eyes and the loud thunderous storm overhead made him believe every single word that came out of her mouth as he tried to move backwards.

“Get away from my mate, you witch!”

Chase whipped his head around. “Hemi, NO!”

It was too late, Hemi tackled Whaitiri off of Chase, making her shriek in anger as she grabbed Hemi with claw like hands making his best friend writhe in pain as she lifted him up with ease. _”You do not push or shove me you fucking mortal!”_

And with what felt like a loud gust of wind and a loud flashing crack, Hemi was blown through the air and smashed into the wall of a building with a horrible thud as Chase tried to let out a sound other than his own uneven choking breath. “H-Hemi!” He managed to strangle out, trying to register what had happened as he tried to crawl over to where his friend had landed motionless. But Whaitiri was already above him again, digging her heel into his stomach as her hair billowed around her.

“You do not cross a deity and get away with it, Chase Randall. You were the perfect match for me, to be my boyfriend and my husband. Yet you refused and chose your stupid little friend over me every single time! I will not allow that.” She leaned down closer to him, forcing him to look her in the eye and making him shake all over. “You will never be allowed to proclaim your love to anyone ever again. You will never say I love you to your loved ones, not your mother, not your stupid little friend if he’s even still alive. Not even your future stupid lovers. I will personally make sure that you will never be able to love anyone again. Every time you will be filled with the worst pain imaginable, the feeling of lightning coursing through your body, and you will remember me. You will remember what you fucking did.” She hissed.

She leaned down and locked her lips with his, but it was a horrible soul sucking kiss that made his body go cold and feel like every inch of it was being stabbed deep with needles as he writhed on the ground. He saw her above him with a glowing something traveling down her neck and into her stomach like she had pulled his very essence and consumed it herself. And he saw that she was wearing the shimmering golden necklace, and he could now see what was hanging off of it. A pearly white fish hook.

His vision started to blur again and his body was still in horrible pain as the needles wouldn’t go away but dug deeper into his body. He wanted to move away, he wanted to get up and see if Hemi was okay. If he wasn’t...wasn’t dead. He felt a breath by his ear making him quake and a whispered _goodbye_ rang softly but coldly as all the sounds around him began to ebb away, leaving him lying on the ground cold and going unconscious with rain falling on his body, completely unsure of what life would be like when he had to wake up again.


	2. chase is shit at his job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zord therapists and grill fires and lots of feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg people like us <333333
> 
> Hi guys, we're back! I actually wrote some of the scenes in this chapter (!) but Riley will get more and more time to shine as the story goes on. 
> 
> Before I explain some things I just want to say that Rin and I have decided that nothing about this fic is going to be serious except for the actual story. We're dumb like that because we tried to think of a title for this chapter for like ten minutes and the titles just got more and more ridiculous.
> 
> Moving on. We started this chapter in a way that might seem a little odd to y'all, and that's mainly because this is a fic that is about Chase and Riley and feelings and curses and them being dumb, and not the team coming together and fighting bad guys and being awesome with dinosaurs because we decided we wanted to write a heart breaking story.
> 
> That's all I have to say, if you love us and this story please leave us a comment and tell us because we freak out and scream at each other in caps when you do and it makes us feel fuzzy and we even reply when we remember.
> 
> ENJOY!!!!!

_**A YEAR LATER…** _

Dry leaves crunched underfoot as Riley pushed through the forest, thick with green and brown but also other vibrant colors.

The brunette could already feel his aggravating thoughts starting to subside as he continued his journey, drawing closer to his destination rapidly.

He pushed aside one last bunch of undergrowth and then smiled at the sight in front of him.

"Hey, Snips."

A red eye blinked open at him lazily, green and yellow tail swishing across the ground, breaking some young trees and undergrowth.

The green ranger stepped forward, placing his hand on the nearest part of Snips he could reach, which happened to be the raptor zord's nose.

"You were awesome today." It had been their first battle together, as ranger and zord, taking the place of Shelby's triceratops so it could go free Chase from the prison he'd managed to get himself caught in.

Riley's thought process, having seen a glimpse of the black ranger, snagged onto that thought, drawing Chase into the forefront of the green ranger's mind.

Riley had known he was gay for several years, for sure since he had first stepped into high school a year early. He wasn't the only member of his family that wasn't straight, but unlike his brother Matt or his cousin Casey, he didn't like to advertise it.

The green ranger patted Snips' nose a few times as he absentmindedly chewed on his bottom lip.

Chase was...Chase was attractive. No one who looked at him could say otherwise. Add his sexy smirk and that accent of his and girls turned to putty.

Riley scowled a little. Girls. Chase never seemed to pay much attention to anyone then the opposite sex, preferably in short shorts or mini skirts.

It hurt. Riley had known he was gay for a long time, but no one had ever caught his attention like the black ranger. None of his other teammates had ever had him scowling when a pretty group of college girls descended on the cafe, skin tanned and giggling.

Get a grip, Griffin, Riley thought to himself fiercely, still stroking at Snips's nose. He was leaning against his zord a little at this point, although Snips didn't seem to mind.

"It's pointless," He murmured, not even realizing it's being said until the words are out of his mouth. "Why would he even notice me like that anyway?"

_**xxxxxxxxx** _

  
It was late by the time Riley left the forest, edging towards a black sky.  
  
Riley felt a lot calmer than when he entered the forest to begin with, more centered - despite the lingering thoughts of Chase.  
  
Those were easy to push away, at least for the time being.    
  
Especially when he got home, pushed the front door open, and found RJ sitting shirtless in the middle of the living room, meditating and humming really, really loudly.  
  
"Hey Riley," Casey said from the doorway that lead to the kitchen.  
  
"Really?" He said, gestured to RJ while slamming the front door shut.  
  
RJ started humming louder.  
  
Casey looked a mixture of apologetic, fond, and amused. He disappeared into the kitchen and Riley followed, eager to get away from the weird smelling candles and RJ's off-key humming.  
  
"How was work?" Casey asked, returning to the process of making dinner (which didn't look like pizza, thankfully enough).   
  
Riley didn't answer right away. He couldn't say **_Koda and Chase got kidnapped resulting in the blue ranger losing another shirt. Also, I met my zord._**  
  
"It was alright," He said, tugged on the ends of his sweater. "A bit boring."  
  
Casey turned back around, raising his eyebrows. "I thought you were excited to work at a dinosaur museum."  
  
"I am," Riley let go of his sleeve. "It was a cafe day. Koda was manning the grill."  
  
"Ah."  
  
Riley's eyebrows scrunched together. That had actually been the day before, and they had all had to keep a close eye on him until eventually Shelby had to switch places with him because he had been eating half of the burgers he made.  
  
"Well," Casey's lips curl into a smile. "At least you made friends here."  
  
Riley frowned, denying to give his cousin a response. He hadn't been the most social kid in high school, but he also hadn't isolated himself either (his mom was a giant over reactor and shouldn't be allowed to report things to the rest of the family).  
  
"I know how to make friends, Casey," He finally said.   
  
The taller brunette just smiled at him again. "I know."  
  
Riley thought about it again at that moment, about telling Casey about the energem hanging from his neck. The words were on the tip of his tongue, and he swallowed, about to speak -  
  
The humming from the living room cut off, only to be replaced by music playing loudly from the speakers.  
  
More specifically, Taylor Swift.   
  
Casey sighed. "He's in one of his Taylor moods again."  
  
Riley shrugged. "At least he stopped humming."  
  
This, of course, was when RJ started singing along.  
  
"Way to jinx it, Ri."  
  
Riley groaned. "Why do you keep him around again?"  
  
"...it's the sex."  
  
"I did not need to know that," Riley said, and headed for the (relative) safety of his own room.

**_xxxxxxxxx_ **

Chase gripped the side of his shower wall as he felt the water trickle over his body. He sighed deeply, trying to clear his mind as he got ready for the day. He hadn’t slept well that night, no, there was too much on his mind to be able to properly sleep. And this was all because of a certain member of his team. Riley Griffin, the youngest member of the team and if Chase had anything to say about it, the cutest. While on a normal day this would be a great thing, instead of feeling his heart soar he felt it sink. He suddenly slammed his fist against the wall, feeling pain blossom on his fist and reminding himself of that night.

He didn’t remember anything that had happened after he passed out. He had woken up in a hospital bed with a painful gasp, his skin still prickling and reminding him of what had happened to him in the first place. He was alone in his hospital room, bandages on his face and his legs. His stomach hurt, and he saw he had a pretty nasty bruise on it. He felt his body seize up when he saw a lone white fish hook lying on his bedside table. He shoved it off and let his head fall back onto his pillows, breathing heavily.

And what of Hemi? What had happened to him?

Chase had been glad to find out that his best friend at least wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t in good shape either. Stuck in the hospital, injured to all hell and back and paralyzed. But he was alive. He was alive, and that’s all that mattered to Chase as he sat by his friend willing himself not to start crying over him. But tears still pricked his eyes and burned his cheeks as they fell. Despite all his efforts he couldn’t stay in his friend’s hospital room for long periods of time without flashing back. Without panicking.

When they had finally let Chase home he had gone through his first bout of his curse. It had been without thinking about it, his mum had been by the door while he was in his room. She had yelled goodbye to him, since she was heading off to work.

He had tried to say ‘Bye, love you mum!’ when he heard the door shut, but the word ‘love had gotten caught in his throat. It felt like someone had stabbed a knife deep into his chest and knocked the wind out of him, and the horrible needled feeling from that night raged across his body painfully as he tried not to cry out in horror as he had to support himself with his desk to keep himself from falling off the chair.

It kept happening, and he quickly learned. He can’t say love. He can’t do it. He can’t even write it. Showing any affection, to anyone. It hurt. Something stopped him and he felt nothing but pain for agonizing horrific moments as he tried to compose himself again. He had managed to scare off a fair few people from him when he accidentally tried to do something without thinking about it. And it was painful visiting Hemi and only being able to smile wearily at his friend.

He had gotten the hang of avoiding any sort of love talk. It had been easy, and he had enjoyed his one night stands that he had with people. He had loved hitting on people when he got to America... But then Riley happened. Riley Griffin happened and fucked up his balance that he had, purely by being himself. Seeing the youngest of the group smile or get excited over something made his heart swell in a way he didn’t want it to. A way that he refused to feel at this point. He could just feel the stabbing and needles sensation that he’d get if he ever even dared say something to Riley. He couldn’t...no, he couldn’t. Yet sometimes he sat there watching Riley out of the corner of his eye.

The water was starting to grow cold in his shower, and he took a shaky breath realizing that his fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles were white, and he stared up at his shower head and nearly choked back a sob of horror when he thought he saw a fish hook hanging off of it. He turned it off quickly and stumbled out of the shower to get dressed. He was going to be late for work again, and he had promised he was going to text Hemi later today. He rubbed his eyes hard as he steadied his breath. No one had to know. No one needed to know about this. He was fine.

**_xxxxxxxxxx_ **

"Good morning Ri!"  
  
The green ranger glanced up from the floor and blinked before smiling at

the sight of Shelby in front of him. "Hey Shel."  
  
Shelby got a quizzical look on her face. "Are you okay, Riley?"  
  
"Yeah," Riley shifted on his feet, taking what he hoped looked like a casual glance over the pink ranger's shoulder.  
  
They were alone, it seemed.  
  
"You don't look okay," Shelby said, getting that determined, stubborn glint in her eye.  
  
Riley smiled at her as reassuringly as possible. "I'm fine, Shel. I promise."  
  
"If you say so," Shelby didn't look convinced, but she didn't push either, something Riley was grateful. "Come on, everyone's upstairs. Cafe day."  
  
"Again?" Riley grumbled.  
  
"Yeah, again," Shelby sighed. "Group B is getting pulled for a dig, so we have to step up."  
  
"We should be going out on the dig."  
  
"Kendall - Miss Morgan is already annoyed she doesn't get to go, so let's not dwell on that, and instead, on making sure Koda doesn't eat all the burgers."  
  
"I vote we put him on stock again," Riley said, and Shelby laughed.  
  
"Him and Chase."  
  
The green ranger's heart tugged a little at the mention of the black ranger.  
  
"At least we can put Chase on the grill."

**_xxxxxxxxx_ **

Okay, maybe Chase wasn’t as fine as he had hoped. Walking into the museum he still felt himself shaking just a little bit, but he threw on a casual grin as a group of rather pretty girls passed by him while he walked towards the cafe. Maybe work and hopefully texting Hemi will help him forget his issues, even if it were only for a little bit.

“Chase, there you are!” Shelby marched over to him.

Chase smirked. “Miss me?”

“Ugh.” Shelby shook her head. “Hurry up, you’re on the grill today.”

Chase managed to laugh as Shelby began physically shoving him towards the grill in the back. That laugh was promptly cut a bit short when he realized that Riley was there. The green ranger wasn’t actually paying attention to him, instead focusing on washing dishes, but it made Chase’s stomach drop slightly as Shelby stationed him in front of the grill. At least it was something that he could usually do fairly well. As long as Chase didn’t get distracted, he could be a pretty good cook. But the familiar vibration of his phone foretold that today was going to be one of those days where his cooking was perhaps not going to be on par.

He pulled out his phone and smiled. Hemi had texted him. It had been awhile since they had texted, Chase having been fairly busy with ranger duties and work. Seemed like with the new rangers joining them, Sledge had decided to attack much more often. That left him too tired to deal with texting, and if he was having his weird flashbacks to that night, it definitely didn’t help. Chase typed out a quick reply, absentmindedly flipping some of the burger patties as he did.

Texting his friend made him miss his home in New Zealand anyways, being able to go out on weekends (and the middle of the week) to find places to crash and have a few drinks, chat up someone good looking and having a nice night without worry of actually having to continue being with them and actually dealing with the curse. Hemi was doing fine at least, though he was paralyzed from the waist down now, but still as carefree and easygoing as he ever was. But he was genuinely still easy going. Not the fake easygoing front that Chase always put up so he could avoid dealing with issues. He flipped a few more patties while he was waiting for Hemi to text him back.

Working with Riley right there wasn’t too bad. They were back to back, so he couldn’t actually see him and start actually having to deal with his emotional problems that Riley tended to cause by existing that cutely.

He’s pretty sure Shelby just told him off about something, but after responding to Hemi he knew he couldn’t really be arsed to pay attention to what she had actually said. Even when he looked up, the first thing he noticed was a very pretty girl sitting alone in the cafe. He wiped away any thoughts of any certain brunet as he suddenly abandoned the grill and slipped out of the kitchen without a sound. He was in his element now, with practiced ease he just slide into a chair and started chatting with her. It felt like it was going to be a hit, with how easily she responded back with a smile on her face.

But the flow was broken when Shelby came up, intending to take the young woman’s (Susan? Becki? Laura?) order.

“...Chase? Aren’t you manning the grill?” She asked in confusion, looking back towards the grill and to the table again trying to figure out how Chase got out there so quickly.

“The grill…” Chase mumbled, still not completely out of flirting with the girl until he remembered that he was in fact, working. “Oh fuck, the grill!” He scrambled to see smoke and flames billowing out of the kitchen.

Riley and Tyler were quick to react, though while Tyler was quick to go fetch the fire extinguisher, Riley more so flailed about not knowing what to do. It was an incredibly horrible moment to think how hilariously adorable the entire thing was, but there was a fire in their kitchen. Chase and the others were quickly instructed by Kendall to evacuate all the customers while Tyler put the fire out, leaving the Dino Bite empty so she could chew Chase out.

He tried to reason with her, saying it was only a little fire that they had dealt with very quickly. The only damage were some scorch marks that they could easily paint over and fix up. But he did feel a bit guilty seeing Riley standing a bit further back, still looking slightly pale.

He stood up quickly, intending to finish the entire scolding before he could feel any worse.“Okay, okay, I promise to pay more attention--Moana!” He finished in shock, his eyes widening at the sight of a familiar face.

But she seemed to be preoccupied when he went and gave her a hug, and she drew him to the side away from his confused teammates to tell him of a vision. She was going to have something stolen, something of great value. Chase turned to see the still confused looks of his teammates.

“She’s a _matakite_ , a Maori fortune teller from New Zealand.”

And really, she was a bit more than that to him. She was one of the only people who knew about his curse outside of himself. An intuition that she had when they first met. She had explained to him about human incarnations of Maori deities, and all in all she had been a bit of a comfort to him when he was even worse for wear than he already was.

She wanted him to guard her shop, and despite some offhand comments from Shelby and Kendall (and much to his dismay, Riley even laughed along with the comments they had made towards him.) and even though he suggested the police, she still insisted on him.

“You have special strengths Chase.” She motioned towards his chest, where he pulled out his energem from the necklace it was hanging off of. Though something in him suspected that she meant more than just the strength he got from the gem.

So he ended up agreeing to go with her to her shop, tripping as he exited with Moana leading the way. She turned towards him after making sure they were well and alone on the streets of Amber Beach. “You’ve improved since last we met. Your smiles feel more genuine.”

Chase smiled weakly at that. “Thanks...I think.” He paused before asking, “Are you still sure you don’t--”

Moana shook her head. “I can only sense things Chase, and see visions. I don’t have the ability to lift curses.” But she squeezed her grip on his arm in comfort. “But I know you will have the power to break through it.”

He thought back to Riley as they approached her tiny shop. He wasn’t sure if he agreed with her sentiment, but the thought put his mind at ease.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'i know what fire extinguisher is' confirmed koda, local caveman of amber beach, before the world's press this evening
> 
> he refused to answer further questions


	3. chase isn't feeling cash money

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things weren't going well so things decided to go considerably less well then previously indicated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More fic! Woo.
> 
> This AU is going to get even more heart breaking and feels-ing as we go you guys have no idea.
> 
> Buckle in for a roller coaster ride, and please, tell us what you thought!

Riley's mind was overwhelmed.

He was still a little shaken about the fire, despite the fact he faced danger regularly as a Ranger.

Other than that...well, his mind was firmly stuck on Chase and his odd visitor.

Groaning, Riley paced the small room in the Dinolair that served as the locker room. He was feeling himself become more and more agitated, and he didn't even know why.

Yes, he had a crush on Chase. But that was it. That was all it was. Just a crush.

Still, he couldn't help but replay the scene from just over a half hour.

The shop owner - Moana, he vaguely recalled - had looked at Chase like there was something she knew about him that no one else did.

It piqued his curiosity. Especially since, well, Chase.

The green ranger ran a hand through his hair and started pacing again. He ached to know everything there was to learn about the parasaur ranger. He felt the same way about his other teammates, of course, but with Chase it was more intense, more consuming.

Riley bit at his lip and sunk to the floor. He closed his eyes and rested his head in his hands.

Pull yourself together, Griffin, He thought. You're here to save the world, not find a boyfriend.

His mind, it seemed, didn't like that.

It rewinded back to Kendall berating Chase for paying more attention to girls then his job, and Riley's chest tightened, something in him growled, and he groaned aloud.

He was so screwed.

xxxxxxxxxx

The little shop was exactly how Chase remembered it the last time he was there. A bit cramped, but full of interesting little oddities that could keep someone entertained for a good few hours. And given that the owner of the shop was a fellow Kiwi, it reminded him of home. But Moana was very touchy about him messing with her trinkets (Chase accidentally breaks one thing once and suddenly he’s not allowed to touch anything ever again.)

“Chase…” Moana looked at him very seriously. “You must stay alert at all times. I know you’re able to do it.”

Chase smiled and nodded. “I know, Moana. I’ll do it. Now you go.”

She patted his shoulders reassuringly. “I’ll be back tomorrow. When I come back if you feel the need to talk about your curse again, I’m always willing to listen.”

“Thanks, Moana.” Chase watched the _matakite_ exit the shop before he began looking around again.

He was going to be there for awhile, so he might as well find a not spot to hang around in, eventually settling on a little nook in between some strange taxidermied animals. His mind wandered back to Riley for a few brief moments, but feeling his skin prickle slightly reminded him that he couldn’t dwell on it if he wanted to keep watch on Moana’s shop. So instead he grabbed a figurine and his bag of crisps that he had brought along and started messing around with it. He made silly voices and pretended to feed the little doll some crisps.

And yeah, maybe it was a bit childish, but he felt a lot better than he had earlier in the day. The sick feeling in his stomach was gone. He pulled out his phone out after that, deciding to play a few games. It’s not like people were coming into the shop, right? And as much as he loved Moana, he had to admit she could be a bit paranoid sometimes when it came to people in her shop. He didn’t know what sort of thing someone would want from her shop. As neat as the trinkets were, none of them seemed too remarkable.

...But then again, she was the one who had his Energem originally. So maybe there was reason to be worried.

Which means that Chase should have been paying more attention to his surroundings, and at some point without realizing it, he fell asleep. And he wished he would have had a nice dreamless nap, but no. It was filled with the rumbling sounds of thunder and a familiar dark night. The only real difference was that there was one extra person.

Riley.

He was standing in the spot where Hemi was, and Hemi was across already unconscious from the blow. Whaitiri was screaming at Riley who was standing his ground, but Chase wanted to scream at him to run, because he didn’t know what Whaitiri could do. But no sound would come out of his mouth and he saw Whaitiri move forward towards Riley and the telltale flash his Chase’s eyes, blinding him.

And he woke up to the sound of laughter, not Whaitiri’s though. His eyes snapped open and he was met with a weird… Bubonic plague looking guy, clearly grabbing something of Moana’s and Chase quickly sprang up to his feet.

“H-hey, put that back!” He shouted, stumbling over the words slightly as he tried to get himself focused.

But it was too late, bubonic guy had already pressed the strange plate to his chest, causing weird sparks to appear all around him. He just laughed at Chase’s weak attempt and he shot him with...with something. Whatever it was, it made his stomach churn horribly. He felt off, but he still grabbed his skateboard and helmet and went after the monster. It was a strange sensation he was feeling. Like he was dizzy, or about to pass out. This wasn’t his curse. No, the curse gave him pain, prickling needles and knives in his gut. This was just a sick feeling. 

“What is wrong with me…?” He asked himself, shaking his head trying to rid the dizzy feeling. 

He threw his skateboard to the ground and hopped on it, going faster. It was weird, as soon as his feet met with the board the dizzying feeling subsided, his stomach settling. It felt much better than he had before, and he was able to start catching up with the monster with relative ease.

But...Something still wasn’t right. What had that monster done to him?

xxxxxxxxxx 

"He blocked every shot with that cape."

Riley was worried. 

The battle hadn't gone well. They'd managed to get away from the monster - Spellbinder, apparently - but something had taken over Chase, had almost made him shoot Tyler.

Something was very, very wrong. 

"None of our weapons could break through it," Shelby said from her spot next to him, looking visibly distressed. Riley didn't blame her, seeing as her boyfriend could have very likely perished in the battle, if Chase hadn't managed to drop his weapon.

Tyler didn't say anything, but threaded an arm around Shelby's waist and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

Riley's stomach churned.

"This," Kendall said, breaking them out of their thoughts. "Is why you have me." She smiled despite the situation and held out an almost robin-blue colored Dino Charger. "The Dino Spike will harness the power of all five energems. Should be powerful enough to break through anything."

"Should?" Tyler teased, reaching with his free arm to take the Dino Spike.

Kendall huffed, an irritated look flashing briefly on her face. "Just remember, you need all five energems for it to work. It won't work without the five of you together."

The five of them. Which meant to use it, Chase would have to break through whatever was causing him to look like he wanted to throw up. 

Riley sighed.

"Got it, Kendall," Tyler pocketed the Dino Spike.

"Miss Morgan," She corrected, but they were already moving across the lab to where Chase was sitting, looking pained, with Koda keeping him company. 

"Chase?" Shelby asked as they all stood behind him, Kendall grabbing a staff that stood against the wall and holding it in front of Chase.

It glowed and Kendall frowned. "Something is definitely wrong. It looks like a spell."

"Felt like I couldn't control myself," Chase shuddered and Riley had to physically stop himself from reaching out to touch Chase. "Whatever it was? It seemed to go away while I was on my skateboard."

"Hmm," Kendall tilted her head and Riley waited, chest feeling unexplainably tight. "Perhaps if we knew the origin of the pendant..."

Chase's eyes light up. "Moana! She'll know!" He stood up and Riley couldn't stop himself this time, hands latching onto Chase's shoulders and pushing him back down.

"Relax, hotshot," He said. "You're not feeling good."

"The lady of the black magic?" Koda made a weird face, and it was only when Chase twisted to face him that Riley realized his hands were still resting on the black ranger's shoulders.

He quickly pulled them off and folded them across his chest.

"It isn't black magic," Chase argued, looking visibly upset. "Moana is on our side, trust me."

"Okay Chase," Tyler smiled. "We'll go visit Moana, you get some rest."

Chase nodded, although he looked a little put off.

"C'mon guys," Tyler jerked his head, Shelby following after him.

Riley hesitated before resting his hand briefly on Chase's arm. "Don't do anything stupid," He said, and then quickly followed Koda after Tyler and Shelby.

xxxxxxxxxx

Chase stayed in the base for a grand total of about 3 minutes. It just didn’t feel right, pacing up and down the length of their base knowing that his teammates were out there without him. That monster...the bubonic guy was still out there, and he could do whatever he did to Chase to the rest of the team. And that Dino Spike Kendall made, it needed all five of them. He couldn’t leave his team alone. So instead he exited the base and started to make his way to Moana’s shop.

He thought back to the base as he walked, thinking about the concern his teammates had displayed. Riley in particular, who had kept his hands on his shoulders for quite a bit longer than Chase had expected. It made his cheeks heat up slightly at the thought, but at the same time gave him the prickling sensation trying to remind himself _no, don’t get too attached. Things will get bad if you get attached._

But Riley’s smiling face penetrated his thoughts again, his smile, and then the look of genuine concern on his face when he saw Chase. His stomach churned and he stumbled. The dizziness had come back, stronger than it had been in the first place. And his mind...It had blanked, for just the briefest moment he felt like a part of his memory just disappeared. He had been walking by that tree...How was he already by this bench? He was breathing heavily, leaning on the bench trying to catch his breath. His mind was swirling, flashes of Riley still going through his mind and his body prickling and the world swaying beneath his feet. 

Suddenly he was away from the bench, a good 15 feet away even though to him he was leaning against it mere seconds ago. 

“W-what...What is going on with me?” He breathed, stumbling forward. “Why don’t I remember moving?”

His mind shifted again to Riley and he felt the prickling sensation again. When he blanked, he didn’t remember feeling that. When he was dizzy, the prickling faded from his body. A strange thought popped into his mind. Letting his body succumb to whatever was going on, whatever it was it meant he didn’t have to feel his curse. Even for a few brief moments he didn’t have to think or feel anything. 

He had moved another 20 feet, and he was leaning up against another tree as he tried to steady himself again. Maybe...maybe if he just…

“...Ah, there you are.” A voice crooned. “You’ve finally started succumbing to my spell.”

“Y-you’re, you’re the bubonic guy!” Chase managed to breath out, as he tried to stumbled forward. The dizzying was unimaginable. Yet it wasn’t pain. It wasn’t the pain of his own curse.

“My name is _Spellbinder!_ ”

“M-my bad, mate.” Chase muttered.

“Come now, just a little more…”

If he let go, maybe the dizziness would stop too. No dizzy sickening feeling, no pain. Just...quiet.

It was like he was falling backwards, but his body was still firmly in place as it felt like his own thoughts were regressing to the back of his mind and it was like he was trapped in someone else’s body, watching through their eyes and not his own. Only for a few of the smallest moments did he remember his team, and that he remembered Riley and his hands resting on his shoulders. But by that point he had finally taken the backseat in his own body.

It was eerily calm, but very blissfully blank.

xxxxxxxxxx

The pendant was bad news.

Of course, Riley thought as they four of them stood in Moana's shop, listening to her explanation. They just couldn't get a break.

"You must break the pendant soon," Moana warned them, eyes wide. "Otherwise the spell will consume Chase until your friend is gone forever."

Riley felt physically sick, his throat constricting painfully.

"We have something that can break it," Tyler said. "But..."

"We need Chase," The words spilled from Riley's lips before he could stop himself. 

Moana looked thoughtful for a moment. "If you can get Chase to concentrate long enough, he may be able to push the spell from his mind."

"Chase? Concentrate?" Shelby snorted.

Moana smiled. "Chase proved to me long ago that, when he needs to, he can concentrate on what's important."

Then she told them how Chase risked his life on his board to save her cat, and how she rewarded him with a treasure unlike any other.

"So that's how Chase got his energem," Riley breathed, and cleared his throat when Shelby raised an eyebrow at him.

"It so easy for him," Koda was practically pouting. "I froze in glacier for thousands years."

They all laughed until Tyler had to slip away when his Dino Com beeped.

Riley watched the red talk quietly into the communicator. His chest was all tight with worry over Chase. Even though he tried to tell himself it was just because it was his teammate, he knew it was more.

Tyler looked grim when he returned to them. "Spellbinder is back," He said. "And Chase is nowhere to be found."

Riley swore later he felt his heart stop.

xxxxxxxxxx

 

Being possessed was a very strange sensation. He was quite literally taking the back seat of his own subconscious as someone--or something took control. He heard his voice and felt his movements, but it wasn’t him doing it. He himself just felt sluggish, lying back and watching it all occur. There was no dizziness, no pain. He hated to admit it, but it felt nice. It was a stark contrast from the hell that he usually had to deal with on a regular basis. And at the moment he wasn’t even doing anything bad, he was just hanging around some boxes waiting for bubonic gu--Spellbinder to give him his cue to enter whatever.

He was kinda a weird monster. 

His body started to move very carefully, which he assumed meant that Spellbinder had given his body the cue and it was now his time to do whatever it is that he needed. His body turned to look at Spellbinder, and he heard his own voice speaking.

_“What is your command?”_

“Destroy him.”

Chase’s head turned to look, and if he could actually feel anything, his stomach would be dropping at that point. The rest of the team, with strange glowing eyes, (was that how Chase looked like right now?) and hiding behind the boxes was a familiar brunet wearing green. Oh no, oh no no no…

_Riley._

“Chase, no! Fight it! Just focus!” Riley called out at him, backing up slightly away from the boxes he had been hiding behind.

Chase suddenly realized what he was doing. He couldn’t let himself be possessed, and he couldn’t let himself kill Riley! Every step forward was heavy, and he was positive the sight of Riley’s terrified face would be imprinted in his mind forever. He tried to struggle against it, but he felt sluggish, like he was moving so slowly. 

_“You defy my master.”_

He panicked as he felt his own arm reached for his blaster and he desperately tried to struggle against it. He couldn’t do this, no, he couldn’t hurt Riley. Riley who was looking so pale in the face as he continued to back up away from him, desperately searching around for something that could save him. He could barely hear Spellbinder egging him on as he tried to fight it. But he was feeling it. The blanks again. It was like he was lagging in a videogame where he’d be one place and then suddenly be way ahead a few seconds later. 

Was he losing himself?

The blanks were growing longer and longer. He was so close to Riley, so threatenly close.

...And then he was on wheels? 

The blanks started spreading apart as he realized he was on some weird...not-skateboard type thing. 

“What is going on?” He muttered to himself. 

And he realized that it was his own body saying that. He was saying it...He was in control! He fumbled slightly as he slid forward and nearly crashed right into Riley, managing to catch himself right before he fell on top of Riley. He couldn’t help but smile at Riley, and felt incredibly happy to see the green ranger grinning back at him with relief in his eyes. 

Chase then spun around in that moment, hitting Riley with a breeze that made the green ranger make a face slightly before giving Spellbinder a half smirk.

“Command _this_.”

Man, was that a good one liner. 

He pressed the trigger on his blaster and Spellbinder was thrown backwards into crates and barrels. And the effect was immediate, the rest of the team had the possession lifted from them, and they all scrambled to their feet and Chase made a beeline towards Riley and held his hand out. 

“Y’alright?” He asked. 

“Fine, great to have you back.” Riley smiled at him as he got up.

And their hands lingered together for just a moment longer, before Chase finally shook his head and realized what he was doing and broke the grasp. Both he and Riley joined the rest of the group as two of Sledge’s cronies appeared along with Spellbinder. The monster seemed to be sputtering, and throwing threats at them, but with all five of them together he knew they could easily beat them. 

“I’m sorry mate, but your time is up!” Chase announced, taking a step forward. 

He took a glance at the rest of the group before holding out a Dino Charger. 

_”It’s morphin’ time!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keeper?? I hardly know her!  
> #whodat


	4. DA INTERLUDE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chicken nuggets happen in this chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAVE AN INTERLUDE, YO.
> 
> We decided we wanted to do a little something in between ep 5 and ep 6, and then we decided we wanted to write it differently then before, sort of in RP format (even though Rin kept fucking stealing Riley jfc).
> 
> WE HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS BRIEF HAPPY MOMENT WHILE IT LASTS.
> 
> As always, tell us what you thought!

Riley was hanging around the museum.

Technically he, Koda, Shelby, and Tyler had all been let go for the day, but Chase was still cleaning the floors.

He had told himself - and Shelby - that he just wanted to make sure there were no aftereffects of Spellbinder's possession.

The pink ranger had given him a look that had said she clearly didn't believe him. "You do that," had been her exact words.

Riley glanced up at the sound of wheels, and couldn't help but smile as Chase rolled to a stop in front of him.

Chase couldn’t help but grin when he realized that Riley was still there. He had assumed that the green ranger had left with the rest of the team while he was still mopping, but Riley was still hanging around the front of a velociraptor display (of course). Riley smiled at him when he rolled to a stop in front of the younger man.

“What’re you doing here? I assumed you’d left with the rest of the team.” Chase asked him.

Riley just shrugged. “I, uh, just wanted to make sure you were still okay. I mean after all that I’d think you’d still be a bit shaken...or something.” He stuttered a bit as he spoke, looking away from Chase.

“Nah mate, I’m fine now. I’ve dealt with worse.” Chase sat down next to Riley, setting his board and mop aside.

“You sure?” Riley “I don’t know what would be worse than that. Shelby was telling me about it and she said it felt like--”

“Like you’re gonna chunder? Yeah. A bit of dizziness and a gross feeling...but uh, you know.” His smile faltered slightly. He didn’t want to get into detail about the specifics that he allowed himself to fall under.

Riley definitely didn’t need to know about any of that.

Riley knew he wasn't getting the entire picture, but he wasn't going to push. Not after today.

He shoved one hand in his pocket. "At least you're feeling better now. I - uhm, we were worried."

Riley cursed in his head. He couldn't believe he had almost practically spilled his feelings to Chase.

Chase laughed at that. “I’m glad at least you guys are worried about me and not just annoyed.”

They both went quiet for a moment, both of them looking in different directions trying to think of something to say. Chase glanced over at Riley to see him staring very intently at his hands before Chase finally stood up and grabbed his mop. “Welp. I’m going to go put this away, and then maybe we can grab a bite to eat together!”

“W-what?”

“I’m starved! Wait by the door will you?”

Chase turned around and grabbed the rest of his things before giving Riley a grin and walking off to put away the supplies.

Riley could physically feel his cheeks going red as the black ranger walked off, not even giving him a chance to respond.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair as he walked towards the museum doors to pull out his phone, quickly texting Casey that he wouldn't be home for dinner. 

As the message whooshed off, he pocketed his phone in his back pocket before leaning against the wall, waiting for Chase.

Chase gave Riley a little wave as he approached the front doors of the museum. Riley rolled his eyes as he approached.

“You do realize I never agreed to this.” Riley pointed out.

“No one ever does.” Chase laughed. “Now where do you want to go?” 

Riley shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know what’s really close by.”

Chase ticked off on his fingers. “I know there’s a Macca’s, this pizza place I can never remember the name of, and...Chinese?”

“Whatever you want.”

Chase groaned as he began to nudge Riley out the door. “You’re more indecisive than Hemi is. Pick one of the three!”

Riley let himself be lead out. “Who’s Hemi?”

“A friend of mine, back in New Zealand. You’re avoiding my question.”

“Fine, fine! Macca’s or whatever. McDonalds, whatever.”

Chase laughed at Riley getting flustered at the different pronunciations. “You say Macca’s funny.”

“The fuck even is a Macca’s, Chase.”

“You just said it, it’s McDonald’s!”

“You guys are weird.”

Chase grinned back at him.

Riley sighed. "Whatever, just lead the way, hotshot," He said, absentmindedly pulling out his phone as it buzzed.

He flicked it open and then went abruptly bright red at the words on the screen, mentally cursing his cousin.

Casey  
Oooh, are you out on a dateee?

Chase noticed Riley going bright red staring at his phone and he almost instantly became very curious, slowing down slightly so Riley could get ahead of him and he could look over his shoulder.

“C-Chase what the hell!” Riley noticed fairly quickly, hiding his phone screen from him.

“Who are you texting? Someone weird? Did they say something dirty?”

Riley’s face went even more red. “My friends and family aren’t dirty like you thank you very much.”

Chase just shrugged. “That sounds like no fun.”

“We have very different definitions of fun.”

“Come on, you’ve never done something like get pissed and wake up at someone else’s house wearing a pair of woman’s pants?”

“...What do you even do in your free time.”

Chase laughed. “You don’t wanna know.”

This was pretty fun. Even though he was around Riley, he was actually able to calm down enough to be able to act more like himself. It wasn’t quite the same and shooting the shit with Hemi, but it was fun enough. He could ignore any prickling that he felt because seeing Riley utterly confused at him was just hilarious.

Riley sighed. "If you have to know, it's my cousin." He quickly responded (I'm not on a date, Case!) before shoving his phone back in his pocket.

Riley cast a quick glance at Chase, smiling before turning back away. He was enjoying learning more about the Kiwi, even if he didn't understand why drinking and partying appealed to people.

His stomach did a little happy thought at the thought of learning everything about Chase, and Riley made a half-aborted gesture to facepalm before restraining himself. 

Chase watched Riley as he made an awkward motion with his hand before the brunet let it fall to his side again, and Chase looked at him curiously. Riley was kinda a weird kid. Well okay, he was only two years younger than Chase, but still. 

“By the way, since I got paid yesterday that means I’m buying for us! For once I actually have money and I intend to blow it as quickly as possible.”

“It’s no wonder you’re not considered the responsible one.” Riley said dryly.

“Hey, every team needs one. And why do I need to be responsible when you’re here to keep me in check?”

Without thinking about it, he slung an arm over Riley’s shoulders just like he used to do with Hemi. It was too late to remove it now, so he got to watch Riley’s cheeks go incredibly red as they walked a few more steps and Riley swatted his arm off of him.

“Why...Just why.” He asked, shaking his head.

“Aren’t I allowed to be touchy feely with a bro?” God, that sounded so dumb. “It’s not like I’m rooting you or anything.” Yeah, Chase. Just make it worse. 

Riley’s eyes widened before he just burst into laughter, to the point that they both had to stop and Riley had to duck away from Chase. It was very out of character for him. “Oh god...Your face when you said that. O-oh god.”

Chase made a face at him. “I didn’t even say anything weird.”

“Everything out of your mouth is strange!”

“...Thanks?”

Even as the younger male laughed, his heart was pounding faster and faster. Chase's arm around him...

Riley blushed again before turning back to Chase. "That was horrible," He said after the black ranger 'thanked' him. "I don't know what girls see in you, with 'moves' like that."

He bite his lip after the words spilled out of his mouth because, of course, the truth was he knew all too well.

Chase opened his mouth to respond, but he stopped himself. This was starting to open a whole topic of conversation that he would much rather avoid. He wasn’t sure if Riley noticed his sudden hesitation, but Chase saw the familiar sign and he just grabbed Riley by his arm and started dragging him to the fast food chain.

“Haha, yeah. Who knows. Now come on, I said I was starving!”

Riley looked at him with a strange expression on his face, but he nodded. “...You alright?”

“Yeah, fine. Chuffed even. Just hungry. Bit knackered, after having to mop all of the museum floor.”

Riley gave him a half smile. “And you did a bit of a half-assed job anyways. Even if you concentrate better on a skateboard, it doesn’t really help your ability to mop.” He seemed to be trying to lighten the mood up again.

Chase laughed a bit. “Yeah...I’ve never been one for cleaning.”

They were silent again. Chase mentally groaned and wondered why he always had to have his mood crushed by a few simple words. He had been doing so well to. He couldn’t blame Riley for it though. He didn’t know anything about it. He didn’t know what Moana was talking about before. He didn’t feel that strong at all.

Riley cleared his throat. "Food," He reminded the Kiwi, and when Chase just looked at him the green ranger pulled his arm out of Chase's grasp, grabbing his hand and dragging him this time.

He felt his cheeks go a little red as soon as they went a few steps, but he didn't drop Chase's hand. He was suddenly really hungry and Chase was being slow.

...it also felt really nice, and he didn't want to stop unless Chase did.

Riley hadn’t let go of his hand. At that point any other person would do something like let go of his hand, but he didn’t. And to be honest, he kinda liked it. He knew it was stupid of him to keep holding his hand. He didn’t want to get attached or anything (and he didn’t want to admit that it was probably too late.) Instead he just looked at Riley.

“What do you want to eat?”

“Chicken nuggets.” Riley nodded very confidently.

Chase snorted. “You’re such a kid.”

“Shut up and buy me my chicken.”

Chase put his free hand up. “Alright, alright. I’ll buy baby raptor his chicken nuggets. I’ll see if they can get you a toy as well.”

“Please do.”

Chase ordered all their food, and Riley was now the proud owner of a weird looking toy car thing. They sat down by the exit and Riley was eating his chicken nuggets while rolling his car side to side.

“You ever wonder if we were Power Rangers of like...something else?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like...what if we were cars. Or maybe trains.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t have gotten you something so sugary.” Chase looked at Riley’s cup of very red fruit punch.

Riley flipped him off. “No. Mine.”

Chase shook his head and laughed. “You know I’m going to use this all against you when you claim that you’re all grown up.”

Riley huffed. "So mean. I thought we were supposed to be a team."

The green ranger was enjoying himself, despite Chase's teasing. He hadn't done anything too telling (besides holding his hand practically a quarter of the way here).

Maybe he could do this. Spend time with Chase as just friends. Maybe, eventually, his crush would go away.

Chase watched Riley basically inhale the rest of his food. Riley gave him an awkward grin when he realized Chase was still eating, only about halfway through his burger.

“I...uh, eat fast?”

Chase leaned forward and flicked Riley on the forehead. “You don’t need excuses, mate.” He grabbed his fries and shoved them in Riley’s direction. “You want my chips? I don’t want them.”

“You don’t want them?”

Chase shook his head. “Nah, I don’t really like them that much.” He smirked. “I’m just glad I found out you’re basically a human trash can.”

Riley stuck his tongue out at him. “I’m just glad I’m eating food that isn’t pizza. I have too much pizza.”

“Is there such a thing?”

“Trust me. There is. Oh god there is.”

Chase looked like he didn't believe him, so Riley decided to elaborate.

"My cousin Casey's boyfriend owns a pizza place. I swear we have pizza every other night, and between that them making out all over the living room I sometimes spend the night at the museum with Koda instead of going home."

Riley didn't know why he had offered up that bit of information. Actually, he did, and it was because besides wanting to know everything about Chase he wanted the reverse to be true as well.

His cheeks went the slightest bit red and he quickly dived into Chase's remaining fries.

“Does Koda even make a good roommate?” Chase wondered.

Riley shrugged. “He’s alright. Sometimes he has bad dreams but honestly I’d rather deal with that then seeing and hearing more of my cousin than I want to.”

Chase laughed. “I’d offer you to stay with me, but I dunno how you’d feel staying with a bunch of idiotic college kids.”

“I hang out with you, don’t I?”

“Yes, but staying with them would me hanging out with me times four.”

Riley thought for a moment. “Yeah, y’know what. I’d rather not deal with that. But if it gets particularly bad I might risk it.”

Chase nodded as he removed the buns from the rest of his burger and ate the inside. “Alright then. I warn you to not come on weekends though. Trust no one then.”

Riley watched him mutilate the remains of his burger buns before Chase crushed it all together into a ball of trash. “Yeah, I’m slightly terrified now.”

“It’s not like they’re murderers or anything. Just drunk college students.”

“That sounds scarier.”

“It is.” Chase stood up and stretched. “You ready to go? Do you wanna go anywhere after this? I have some free time still before I gotta meet up with my roommates for something.”

Riley shook his head. “Oh no, it’s fine...Thanks for lunch by the way.” He stood up with Chase.

Chase grinned. “Yeah, and now you owe me lunch next time.” He winked at him. “Get me something fancy.” 

"You get me McDonald's and I'm supposed to buy you something fancy?" The green ranger laughed and shoved Chase out the door. "Keep dreaming, hotshot."

They stepped back out onto the street and Riley felt his stomach twist a bit at the thought of parting from Chase.

This is not a date, He reminded himself fiercely. Chase doesn't even know you're gay, and him? You have no idea if he even likes guys.

Shaking his head a little he moved away from Chase, just to put a little space between them.

Chase looked over at Riley, who was decidedly not giving him any eye contact whatsoever. It was a very different Riley than the one he had seen while they were eating, almost back to the way they were beforehand. He was tugging on the hem of his sweater and glancing over at Chase.

“So, I’m going this way.” Chase nodded towards the direction of where his shared flat was. “You?”

Riley pointed in the opposite direction. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

Chase nodded, and gave Riley a smile. “I’ll text you later if you need a distraction from your cousins.”

“Thanks, I might need it.” Riley laughed. 

They both gave each other waves before walking in their respective directions. And the smile on Chase’s face fell as he walked away. He could feel the sensation of the curse reminding him why he shouldn’t be doing this, but for once he tried to shove it back down. This was fun. This was nice. He could enjoy it as much as he could, before it finally went too far. He just had to be careful.

He just hoped that Riley didn’t feel for him as strongly as he did for Riley. Because if he did, this whole thing might become a mess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chase Randall: hahaha riley griffin?? no man what a loser *pictures of riley griffin begin spilling out of pockets* s hit these arent mine no im holding these for someone *tries shoving them back in pockets* thESE ARE TYLER'S I SWEAR *millions of other pictures of riley keep spilling out* f UCK


	5. riley wants dat kiwi lovin'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 70% Riley training, 15% Chase beating himself up, 10% kicking monster ass, and 5% talking about feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You all or going to either hate us or love us at the end of this chapter, lol.
> 
> CANON DIVERGENCE STARTS AFTER THIS CHAPTER. PREPARE THYSELVES.
> 
> As always, let us know what you thought, we love your feedback and it helps us keep writing :D

The wind in his ears as his feet pounded against the track was the only thing Riley could hear.  
  
Well, he wished. His thoughts were loud, blaring, and refused to go away. A common occurrence, unfortunately.

And, as usual lately, he was thinking about Chase.  
  
In the week since they'd gone out to lunch together, things had...shifted between the two of them.  
  
He didn't know which of them had started it, but they'd drifted towards each other every time the whole team was together, their hands brushed each other and in the few battles they'd been in, they'd partnered together.

While that may not seem like a drastic difference, it was enough that the green ranger kept hoping for more and more.

Riley swallowed, and breathed noisily as he dropped to the track and started doing push-ups.  
  
Maybe he was overthinking things. He did tend to do so.

But then again, some of the looks he'd seen in Chase's eyes...  
  
The green ranger sighed. This was getting so confusing.  
  
He just wished he knew what was going on in Chase's head.

_**xxxxxxxxxx** _

Chase groaned, burying his head into his pillows. He was incredibly glad that he didn’t have to do any work until later in the afternoon. He was tired, and spent most of the night tossing and turning in his sleep. And Chase was one who needed sleep, or else he’d end up in a foul mood. He sighed, scrunching his eyes shut as he tried to sleep for just a little while longer. But every time he closed his eyes he saw Riley in his head.

And if he were a normal guy, that would probably lead onto some very inappropriate dreaming, and as much as he wished that were the case, it only brought about bad feelings in his mind. He so desperately wanted to enjoy time with Riley, friendship or otherwise. But it felt like it could only end poorly for him.

He could see Whaitiri standing over him again, with the crazed look on her face. She’d made sure that he wouldn’t ever be able to live happily ever again.

“Ah, shit.” He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

He definitely wasn’t going to be able to sleep anymore. He’d try again later in the base. Kendall might scold him about it, but he didn’t care.

He started to get dressed, and as he pulled on a black shirt over his head he looked and saw his pictures of home staring back at him. Of Hemi, and hell even Jethro and the rest of the idiots he hung out with sometimes. He really did miss them, and missed being at home where the seasons were the proper way ‘round for him and he didn’t have to explain his manner of speech every few minutes. He thought about Riley again and felt himself shiver. Maybe if it really did go too far…

The only reason he was still in Amber Beach was just ranger work and school. He could go to school in New Zealand easily, and as for ranger work...

“There’s gonna be more...Surely they don’t need all 10 of us.” But he still felt guilty even thinking about it.

He groaned. There had to be a way to make this more simple. He didn’t want to have to deal with the gross pain that came along with all of it. It made him want to scream. He wanted to love Riley, no, be friends with him. He wanted to stay as far away as him as possible.

He walked right into his front door and cursed.

“I hate this. I really hate this.”

**_xxxxxxxxx_ **

Even after his full morning routine, Riley's mind was racing.

Fine, then. Maybe whacking around some tennis balls around and preparing for the eventual rematch with Fury would help give him some respite from all these thoughts about Chase.

It took the green ranger a little over a half hour to reach the museum, and when he slid into the Dinolair, no one else was around.

All the better. And he didn't have to work a shift today, so hopefully he'd be left alone to get training done.

He dropped his bag on the floor and loaded up the tennis ball machine, rotating his sword in a couple lazy strikes in the air before turning the machine on.

_Thwip. Thwack. Thwip. Thwack. Thwip._

Riley was in his element now, mind solely focused on the tennis balls as he moved, mind and body in perfect synchronization.

The green ranger went through the easy motions first, strikes and blocks he'd memorized since he'd first picked up a sword. It was only when the tennis balls began feeding out of the machine at a faster rate that he decided to break out his more fancy moves.

_Thwip thwip thwip. Thwack thwack. Thwip thwip thwip. Thwack thwack._

Then one tennis ball came at him perfectly, in the same arc as the bolt of lightning, and Riley's arm jerked out -

He toppled to the floor, ball bouncing against the wall, and cursed loudly, slamming his fist against the floor.

The brunette got to his feet. "I will be prepared," He muttered under his breath, and his arm jerked out in the same way as another ball came sailing towards him.

**_xxxxxxxxx_ **

Chase was most definitely having one of those days. Him walking into his doorway was only the beginning of it. He still had a while before he had to actually start working so he decided to go to the base first, and if there was any indication that he wasn’t feeling anything that day, as soon as he landed at the bottom of the slide he just ended up staying there staring at the ceiling for a few minutes. He heard the sounds of tennis balls being hit around, and he knew Riley was already there.

He had probably been way too into his training to even notice that Chase had arrived. Sure enough, when Chase sat up he saw Riley in his bright green workout clothes and hitting away tennis balls, even doing a few flips in the process. Instead of acknowledging Riley, he just shuffled past him towards an empty chair by a workstation he had claimed for all his skateboard stuff (much to Kendall’s dismay).

Riley was still going at it, clearly working up a sweat as Chase opted to just sit and listen to his music and drink some flat soda that he had brought to the base yesterday. Whatever, he needed sugar no matter how flat and watered down the drink was. Had Riley even noticed him? He probably had, but was too busy hitting his tennis balls to actually give Chase a proper greeting. Chase wasn’t even sure how Riley could train so often and for so long. He definitely wasn’t out of shape, but Chase never really worked out more than he needed to.

He tilted his head as he continued to watch Riley from behind. Though it probably helped that Riley came from background where he literally did work outside almost every day doing something strenuous, while most of the stuff Chase did outside of the gym was eat crisps and play video games with Hemi if he was up to it.

He let his eyes wander lower on Riley’s body. Fuck, it was moments like this he wished that he didn’t have an...emotion-related attachment (hell, his skin still prickled at even thinking in a roundabout way) because maybe it would have been easier to have a one night stand or something. No emotions yet he still managed to get something that resembled...Certain things. God, his skin felt prickly as hell. He needed to stop thinking about it.

He looked down at his phone. Yeah, he could just play a few of his games and not think about the guy in front of him or his arse. Because any more thoughts would be like a knife to his chest.

_**xxxxxxxxxx** _

It took Riley a while to notice Chase's presence.

He was so consumed by training at trying to forget about the black ranger that it wasn't until he heard slurping noises and sudden, loud, blasting music that the green ranger misstepped and was pelted in the shoulder by two tennis balls.

He hissed and whirled around, glaring down at the black ranger. "Hello, Chase? I'm trying to train here!"

The Kiwi just looked up at him blankly. "But mate, you've been practicing the same move over and over."

The brunette felt his blood practically boiling. Honestly, Chase knew nothing about him, and he hadn't. The black ranger probably just thought every sword move looked the same.

"Practice makes perfect. Repetition is key. Not that you would know that," He spat right back, flinging his sword down on the counter. "I never even see you train!"

"Whatever bro, just because I don't train the same way as you doesn't mean I don't train."

Riley snorted, arms folding across his chest. "Yeah right. I'm preparing myself for up coming battles and you're off hitting on everything that moves."

Something twisted in Chase's face and he didn't say anything, just stormed off out of the Dinolair.

"Yeah, walk away," Riley grumbled, then promptly yelped when a tennis ball hit him in the forehead.

Karma.

**_xxxxxxxxx_ **

It was later in the day and Chase was waiting inside the Dino Bite for Tyler and Riley could show up so they could finally start talking about where to locate the gold Energem. It felt like they’re getting a bit closer to finding it, but so far there was still no luck. Chase sighed, watching Koda tuck away another burger while they waited.

“Chase, you okay?” Koda asked, tilting his head to the side at Chase.

“I’m fine...I’m fine.” Chase sighed.

He and Riley had gotten into a right proper fight, and he wasn’t sure who exactly was completely at fault. He hadn’t really meant to sound so mean when he asked Riley about his training, he was genuinely wondering. He had never really seen people train because Koda was naturally that strong, and he never really saw Tyler or Shelby train. Practicing the same move felt pretty pointless to him because what would happen if your opponent changed things up? Then that one move would be useless.

But he doubted Riley would want to hear that.

Really he doubted Riley wanted to hear his voice in general at the moment, the green ranger had seemed pretty pissed when Chase had left the base.

“Hey guys!” Tyler slide into a seat next to Koda and Riley sat in the only empty chair left.

Which happened to be right next to Chase.

Neither of them really looked at each other, just an awkward glance because the argument was still clear in both of their minds. Tyler either didn’t notice the tension between them or he just chose to ignore it for the time being. They began discussing the locations of where the gold Energem could be, and Chase’s mind began to wander slightly as Tyler and Riley began to discuss the best places to look.

His eyes turned towards Riley, the tension much lower than it had been before now that Riley had eased himself into discussing plans with Tyler while Koda listened in. There was a small smile playing across Riley’s lips as they talked. He and the red ranger had probably come up with a solid plan as his eyes lit up slightly. Chase felt his own lips twitch slightly in response to it, and his eyes began to wander lower just as they had before when he had been watching Riley train. He felt a bit guilty about it, but he couldn’t help it.

If he had weird dreams about this later, he fully understood why.

His eyes snapped up when he heard someone come up by them, and turned to see Shelby setting a tray down in front of the four of them.

“Chef’s trying a new recipe.”

The cake certainly looked weird. A bright pink and purple coloring, but it looked appetizing enough to be consumed. Koda and Tyler seem excited enough, immediately grabbing pieces while Riley seemed suspicious about the whole thing. It reminded Chase that he and Riley were pissed at each other, and his mood was brought down.

Riley reached his hand out and slapped the cake out of Tyler’s grasp, and the Latino looked incredibly offended at the fact, fork still hovering in the air.

“Don’t eat that.” Riley muttered, looking around.

Chase sighed. “Chill bro, a little cake never hurt anyone.” It sounded a bit more biting than he meant to, and Riley narrowed his eyes and respond similarly.

“Tell that to everyone else.”

Chase looked up to see the crowd of customers with glowing purple mouths and looking like they were in pain. He and the rest of the team immediately stood up from their seats. What the hell was going on? Was it the cake?

Sure enough, every person who was holding their mouths at the moment had a slice of the weird cake in front of them. Like they had a toothache to the extreme. Anyone who had yet to eat the cake immediately pushed away their untouched slices and got the hell out of there before anything else happened, but Chase and the rest immediately pinpointed a weird cake looking monster who had stowed away in the kitchen.

“How the hell did we miss that?” Chase wondered out loud as Tyler immediately ordered everyone to go after them.

He had sent him and Riley to go through the front to cut them off, while the other three ran to the back in the kitchens to chase after it and help their actual chef. Of course he and Riley had ended up together, but right now the priority was defeating the weird cake guy who had just given everyone a massive toothache. Both he and Riley grabbed their morphers and spun the cylinder of the blaster to morph quickly.

They needed to stop him before he got to anyone else. If Chase knew anything, it was that pain was absolute hell to deal with.

**_xxxxxxxx_ **

"Riley," Kendall said, and the green ranger angrily spun around, sword clattering to the floor.

He was pissed. Chase had used him as bait, as a shield, and then had stepped in the way and ultimately let the monster get away.

And then, he had thrown away the samples of the cake left, which would have been instrumental in creating an antidote for the toothache many of their customers now had.

"I know you and Chase have your differences," Kendall told him, picking up two of the tennis balls Riley used to train. "Just remember people have different ways of solving the same problem."

She threw one tennis ball straight in the bucket, and then bounced the other one off three walls before it landed neatly in the bucket next to the other ball.

Riley felt his cheeks flush in shame as he turned away from Kendall.

The female didn't say anything more, heels clacking against the floor as she left him alone to his thoughts.

Minutes ticked by as he sat quietly in the Dinolair until suddenly his Dino Com buzzed.

**_"I found our monster, and he’s blasting more than just teeth now."_ **

Riley jerked his head up, surprised. "Chase?" He muttered, but quickly grabbed his energem and Dino Chargers.

He and Chase may not be on the best terms, but he wasn't going to leave a member of the team to fight on their own, and well...

Maybe Kendall had a point.

**_xxxxxxxx_ **

Chase frowned as he stared around the streets of Amber Beach. Everything seemed alright in this area too. People were milling about and doing their usual daily routines. No one with freaky purple mouths or people running away in fear. After Kendall had kicked him and Riley out, Chase’s first thought would have been to just go home, or just go off skateboarding somewhere to clear his head. How had their fighting gotten so far? He certainly didn’t really want to be mean to Riley, but it sure kept coming out that way.

Maybe he was naturally trying to push Riley away. That seemed to be the only real explanation he had in his mind.

But he really shouldn’t dwell on that right now. Their cavity monster was still on the loose, and Chase was determined to find him before he got anyone else. He closed his eyes and tried to put his mind to the test, wondering where the hell a monster would go if his primary objective was to quite literally give people toothaches.

His eyes snapped open when it hit him. Just past the West Bridge there was a huge sweets district. All sorts of bakeries and candy stores. That’s exactly where he’d probably end up going. Chase sped forward on his skateboard towards the area, and sure enough right when he arrived at the bridge, he saw Cavity blasting areas as he advanced on towards the other side.

“Guess my gut was right.” Chase muttered as he dismounted his skateboard and pulled out his communicator. “I found our monster, and he’s blasting more than just teeth now.”

He stuck his communicator back into his pocket and started tailing him. “Oi, fuckface!” Chase called out. “I can smell you from miles away. You’d better get that checked out!”

He pulled out his morpher and blasted a shot at him, hitting him square in the chest. He fell backwards, and Chase took that time to pull out one of his dino chargers to morph. And just in time too, because Cavity got up quickly and started shooting at him. He dodged quickly, noticing that the monster looked slightly different than he had when he had. He didn’t seem to be wearing clothes for one, which was a bit weird. He was definitely stronger though, and he had gotten a few close calls with dodging the attacks.

Maybe attacking the teeth…?

He burst forward, aiming his blaster and shooting him directly in the mouth.

He felt pain bloom in his chest as he was thrown backwards though, because the attack had completely been repelled. Yeah, definitely stronger. He struggled to get up, clutching his chest. With the usual pain he had always felt, he almost forgot how bad real physical pain was. His eyes widened as he saw the purple blast head towards him, and horrible aching pain spread across his mouth.

It was enough for him to demorph, his hand immediately flying to his mouth as he held it in pain. Jesus, this was almost worse than the pain from his curse. He watched Cavity advance towards him as he struggled to get back on his feet,  and the monster was mocking him. He hoped someone, anyone from the team would show up.

Or else he was fucked.

“Say goodbye, black ranger!”

Cavity was completely poised to shoot him, and Chase tensed when he thought he was going to be shot. But something ran past him like a blur and he saw the yellow blade of a sword that made him sigh in relief.

_Riley._

He had managed to make it, and the other three were close behind. He managed to shove Cavity away from them and got a few strikes in, Chase helping as much as he could by stumbling to his feet and throwing a punch. But he felt a hand on his shoulder as Riley pushed him back.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you!”

Chase nodded as he backed away.

He really did believe him.

_**xxxxxxxxx** _

After the fight, Riley went back to the track.

He felt oddly energetic after that fight that should have been exhausting. It hadn't been easy, but it hadn't been hard either, not with him and Chase being drawn together and absolutely wrecking Cavity.

The green ranger sighed, running a hand through his hair and plopping down on the bench.

He was tying his shoes when he heard the familiar sound of skateboard wheels, and a glance up revealed Chase was indeed skating towards him.

"Thought I'd join you for a little training," The black ranger said, and Riley felt his heart squeeze, and then skip a beat.

"Really?" He said in disbelief, and shook his head when Chase plopped down next to him.

"Sorry about earlier," Riley finally said as Chase messed with his own shoes. "Growing up on the ranch was lonely, and I always had to put up a tough front at school because I was the loner. The.." He swallowed. He could trust Chase, they were friends, teammates. "The gay kid."

He paused again, ran a hand through his hair. "But we're teammates, so we need to work together instead of fighting."

Chase glanced up at him, and then pulled an earbud out. "Sorry, what was that mate?"

Riley flushed, getting to his feet. "Don't worry about it, hotshot."

The black ranger stood up, taking both earbuds out. "If there's something you need to say, Riley, just say it."

The brunette turned back around, observing Chase for a half a moment.

The Kiwi was looking at him curiously, expectantly, and Riley felt his heart skip a beat again.

Fuck it, He thought, and closed the brief gap between them, grabbing handfuls of Chase's jacket and pulling the black ranger down to mesh their lips together in a kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> after fighting cavity tooth and nail, are their fillings suddenly out?
> 
> this aint something u can just brush off


	6. A Triumphant Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clones are fought. Feels are felt. Ribs are bruised. Things and stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been like 5000 years since we've updated guys ^^; life has been very much getting in the way for both of us so I hope you enjoy this chapter!
> 
> Hopefully we'll be updating more frequently now :)

Chase’s hands moved deftly as he chained together some daisies that he had found nearby. They had decided to go out in the field to use the machine that Shelby and Kendall had made to locate possible energem locations, and currently they were searching for any readings of gold given that they were currently stuck on the Aqua ranger problem even though they already had the ankylozord. The rest of the team was mostly there for backup, the only person really doing any work was Shelby (though Riley was trying his damnedest to actually help somehow). Koda was up in a tree, Tyler was busy sitting and scribbling in his journal, and Chase himself was...Well, he was making a daisy chain.

But his thoughts were elsewhere at the moment. Despite the amount of time that had already passed, his mind still went back to that day on the track where Riley usually did his training. Right after their battle with Cavity Chase had decided to go and train with Riley to see what the fuss was about, and figured that if Riley learned his lesson about working with Chase it was only fair that he’d take a little something out of Riley’s book.

When he had sat down, Riley had started talking to him, apologizing. Then he had...admitted some things. When the word ‘gay’ came out of his mouth Chase remembered his heart pounding in his chest and he realized he had no idea how to respond. It made him really wanna say something, but the fear of the consequences held him back, and so when Riley finished the only thing he could think of to do is to pull out his earbud (which hadn’t even been playing any music, as his phone was long dead by then) and act like he hadn’t heard a thing. He almost immediately regretted it, seeing the look on Riley’s face when he said nevermind.

But Chase told him that Riley could talk to him, and without warning he had felt soft lips on his own. 

And _fuck_ it had been amazing. Even better than he could have ever hoped for. And despite better judgements and basically everything besides his heart telling him this was a horrible idea, he started kissing Riley back. It felt like ages before they actually broke apart and they just stayed there looking at each other for a few moments before Riley stuttered and suggested running around the track. And Chase had given him a peck on the cheek before running off.

Neither of them had actually talked about it after that, though it was probably obvious to everyone on the team that they were much closer than they had been before, the way that they looked at each other and the way any sort of touch lingered. Whenever they were fighting someone Riley and Chase were never too far away from each other. Yet neither of them had really discussed what exactly their relationship was yet. It was all sort of in a limbo. 

Chase heard a quiet thud and he looked up to see that Shelby had ended up pushing Riley out of the way, and so he ended up with a green ranger lying on the grass next to him that was pouting about being tossed aside. 

“Don’t worry, we still appreciate you Riley.” Chase laughed as he helped him sit up. “At least your clothes won’t stain green, given that they already are green.” 

“Yeah, thanks.” Riley muttered, sitting back against the rock that Chase was sitting on. 

“No problem.” He finished knotting his daisy chain into a circlet and placing it on Riley’s hair. “There, now you can be pretty.”

Riley smiled up at him. “Thank you very much. Now, lemme see if I can help Shelby again…” The green ranger began crawling back up to the machine.

Chase shook his head. Riley was nearly as stubborn as Shelby was. She had already pushed Riley aside at least three times, yet that wasn’t stopping him. But it seemed like Shelby had finally relented, probably because she was too busy teasing Riley about his newly acquired flower crown because he watched her poke it a few times before giggling as Riley swatted her hands away. Chase picked up a few of the remaining daisies he had. He could still feel a bit of a prickling feeling under his skin, but it didn’t bother him. 

He was actually feeling good for once.

xxxxxxxxxx

Clone rangers. Of course.

Today had started well, with Shelby finally relenting to letting him help with the E-Tracer and Chase making him the daisy chain...Riley felt his cheeks flush under his helmet as he struggled against the Vivix and the clone rangers who had shown up.

"You may look like us, but you're not as smart!" Speaking of the black ranger, he effortlessly fired his gun into the fray.

Riley flinched, expecting to be hit by a blast that came arching his way, but instead it hit the pink ranger he'd been fighting.

"Chase?" Shelby's voice spoke up from across the battlefield, and Riley quickly kicked the fake pink ranger away from him. "How'd you know which ones were fake?"

"I slipped daisies in your belts," The Kiwi sounded smug and sure enough, when Riley glanced down, he saw a tiny white flower tucked next to his Dino com.

"Clever, clever boy," Shelby nudged Chase, a friendly ease in her motions, and Riley was overwhelmed by the sudden surge of jealousy the welled up in him.

Now wasn't the time, however, as the monster of the week came swaggering up and proclaimed them weak without their leader.

"Let's kick this guy's ass," Shelby growled, and then all four of them were transforming into Dino Steel mode.

xxxxxxxx

It really felt like they were fighting a losing battle, with two Vivix seemingly coming to replace every one that they destroyed. And even with Dino Steel mode on it felt like their attacks only just bounced off of Duplicon. It looked like he was gathering more Vivix to turn into clone rangers.

Really, now that Chase thought about it, it had probably been a bad idea to throw the daisies out of their belts. Even if it did feel pretty cool throwing them behind them. Shelby quickly tapped him on the shoulder. “Quick, he’s going to make more clones!”

Chase nodded and held up his weapon and aimed carefully. While it didn’t damage Duplicon, it did stun him enough to not have created another clone ranger. “I don’t know how much longer we can last.” He muttered.

The rest of the group stepped forward, and Riley turned to look at him. “Try calling Tyler again. We can handle this!” 

Chase backed up a few paces, still keeping watch around him as he called Tyler again. “Tyler, we can’t fight this monster without you!” He panicked as a Vivix approached him and he quickly shot it directly through the chest as he backed up again. “We need to use the Dino Spike!”

He pocketed his communicator and ran forward again, holding up his blaster and shooting a Vivix between its shoulder blades that had been getting dangerously close to Riley and Shelby. Koda helped as well, grabbing a Vivix by its and flinging it into another two that were nearby. They had to keep them away from Duplicon, that way he couldn’t make clones. But Chase was slightly distracted, partially from constantly looking out for Riley (who was a close combat fighter with his sword, that meant sometimes he put more focus into the enemy that was in front of him and could miss some that were coming up behind him) and hoping that Tyler would arrive soon.

His breath was knocked out of his throat as Duplicon had managed to catch him off guard and land a hit right in his ribs. He felt a sharp pain as he fell backwards onto the ground, Riley falling a few feet away from him at nearly the same time. Chase tried to breath but the pain in his ribs made it hard for him to get back up.

“Riley, y’alright?” He asked, clutching his midsection.

“F-fine!”

Koda and Shelby had gone after Duplicon, now that the amount of Vivix had finally decreased. They were blasted backwards as well, falling behind Riley and Chase as they all struggled to their feet. That’s when the sound of a miracle hit their ears as the familiar voice of Tyler came calling behind them. Chase turned as he got to his feet to see Tyler already morphed and in Dino Steel mode, and they quickly grouped up as created the Dino Spike for the first time, launching Tyler into the air and driving right through Duplicon.

They all took a moment to sigh in relief as Shelby threw her arms around Tyler. “We were so worried about you!”

Chase laughed a bit, ignoring the very clearly bruised rib that he sported. “Great timing, mate.”

Tyler grew serious. “We have to stop Poisandra from using the E-tracer!”

It was around 20 minutes later that they stumbled upon Poisandra and Wrench, both of them desperately trying to figure out how the machine worked. It was probably thanks to that that they even had the time to stop them. Tyler reached his hand out and nearly said something, but he quickly retracted it.

“It’s Fury!” He breathed. 

Fury snatched the E-tracer from Poisandra and Wrench’s grasps and began to walk off with it, and Tyler motioned to Chase. “Chase, you’re the only one who can hit it.”

“B-but my E-tracer!” Shelby interrupted, sounding worried.

“I’m sorry Shelby.” Tyler turned to Chase and motioned for him to move forward.

Chase nodded, pulling out his blaster and taking careful aim. He was shaking. He still hurt from their battle from Duplicon, and keeping his arms steady to aim was proving to be difficult. He took a deep breath as he tried to carefully aim again, and pulled the trigger. He watched his shot soar through the air and before even anyone else could tell, he felt his stomach drop because he knew what had happened. 

He had missed. 

Instead of hitting the E-tracer like he had intended, it had hit Fury square in the eye. He growled in pain, and the E-tracer fell from his grasp (if anything, at least he had managed to break it that way.) But he gasped along with the rest of the team. Fury was grasping his face, and he had moved his hand out of the way to reveal a bright golden brown eye. But not just any kind of eye.

It was the eye of a person, a human.

“What the fuck?” Chase breathed, stumbling slightly and clutching his ribs. Riley quickly steadied him, keeping his hands on Chase.

And a strange, golden goo type thing started trying to escape from Fury, and Fury tried to desperately fight it, yelling that he was in control. Poisandra and Wrench had long since fled. The rangers could only watch in shock as Fury seemingly fought himself.

“That gold thing, that happened earlier!” Tyler said from his left. “It’s happening again!”

Fury fell to his knees, crawling over towards the now broken E-tracer, reaching towards the Dino Charger that Shelby and Kendall had created to track the gold Energem. As soon as he wrapped his clawed fingers around it, he let out a pained howl as his entire body was engulfed in bright shimmering gold and pieces of his body were flung every which way. But there was still a figure in the shadows of the smoke. A confused, stumbling body holding onto the gold Dino Charger for his dear life.

He stumbled forward and looked at them in shock with his bright golden brown eyes. He opened his mouth, looking at the charger in his hand. He was dressed like some sort of knight...and he only gave the team another fleeting look before sprinting away.

“W-wait!” Shelby called after him. She demorphed and looked at the rest. “What was that? No, _who_ was that? That can’t have been Fury.”

They all demorphed, Chase still clutching his ribs. He saw Riley looking worried. “We’ll talk about it back in the lab, we all need to get patched up.

Chase tried to wave him off. “I’m fine, I think I just have a bruised rib--”

“But you still need to rest, and I don’t think we want to be discussing Ranger business out in public.” 

Chase sighed. “You’re right. Let’s get going.”

He allowed the green ranger to help him steady himself as the rest of the team looked over themselves for injuries as they made their way back to the base.

xxxxxxxxxx

"A...knight?" Kendall sounded skeptical as she wrapped Chase's ribs in bandages.

Riley wasn't jealous of the fact that she got to patch him up. Not at all.

"We know what we saw, Kendall!" Shelby exclaimed.

"Miss Morgan," Their mentor corrected instantly, making them all roll their eyes.

"We all saw it," Tyler added, voice subdued, eyes a little distant.

Riley bit his lip. He knew the red ranger had sort of been hoping that Fury would lead to his father. Even though it had only been about an hour and a half, Tyler had had hope.

The green ranger knew how that felt.

"We'll find your dad, Tyler," The brunette said lowly, letting his hand rest on the red ranger's shoulder briefly.

"Thanks, Riley," Tyler half-smiled.

"Well," Kendall's brows furrowed. "Where did this... 'Knight' go?"

"He ran off," Shelby pressed against Tyler's side, one arm wrapping around his waist.

Riley watched, slightly longing, as Tyler automatically adjusted to her position against him, chin tucking over her head, arm slinging around her shoulders.

God, he wanted that. 

His gaze flicked over to Chase, the noise of the lab and his teammates' voices fading into the background. He could picture it with almost embarrassing clarity, snuggled up in Chase's arms, face pressed against the Kiwi's chest and -

Riley felt his face flush hot and he turned away from the group, feet quickly carrying him towards the elevator that would take him up to the museum, barely hearing Tyler calling after to him curiously, worryingly.

As the elevator doors slid shut, Riley leaned against the cool metal wall, running his hand through his hair.

Kissing Chase had been...amazing. Perfect. Even better, the Kiwi had responded.

But since then, they'd still been dancing around each other. Nothing more then Chase holding his hand a few times and being glued to his side during battles.

And all of Chase's extra flirtatious words, of course, and Riley's attempts to respond.

He groaned aloud as the doors slid open, and his feet carried him out onto the museum floor.

Was it too much to ask for Chase to actually talk to him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no funny end note this time
> 
> but i did accidentally fall in love with a mean prince with fancy hair

**Author's Note:**

> Tell us what you think...we want your love.
> 
> >.>


End file.
